Neuromatch Academy (NMA) started as a community effort to breach the educational and networking gap that the Covid-19 pandemic would have created by the absence of the traditional neuroscience summer schools. That quickly evolved into bringing the high-quality educational materials in computational neuroscience and deep learning to the entire goble. That evolution, and the lessons therein, brought to the front the inequalities in accessibility to education. NMA sought to remedy that by making the school and educational materials maximally accessible, which sits at the core of the NMA mission. There was also the opportunity to put into practice contemporary educational technology and expertise: coding notebooks tutorials, pre-recorded lectures, live Q&A sessions, peer-programming, small student groups (called pods ~10 students per teaching assistant), among others. 

• A region calibrated tuition fee, with waivers available

• Teaching assistants were paid USD 1500 for their time

• Organization of ‘pods’ across nine time-zones to accommodate participants across the globe

• Fourteen different pod languages 

• Student representation across sixty-four countries

• Content materials permanently available through GitHub 

• An unique team dedicated to make materials accessible in China

• An sanctions exemption from the US Treasury that enabled Iranian students to participate

• Career development workshops and global networking opportunities

• Matching algorithm for TAs to more senior faculty

The micro (small pods) to macro (global) goes beyond what any online educational program has been able to achieve. At the core of this global effort, was the diversity of individuals that contributed to help make NMA happen. As NMA matures, we are even more committed to empower those diverse voices and help us reach the regions of the world that we have not been able to reach yet. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are embedded in the fabric of how NMA came about, how it achieved success as an educational program, and in the vision for its future. This is our commitment.